The Sydney House

by Lucy E. Cousins

From rocky outcrops and headland peninsulas to coastal living and inner-city terraces, Sydney features a diverse range of housing styles. Starting in April, the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales is hosting a series of lectures exploring the different ways in which we live, given by some of Australia’s most prominent architects, property journalists, lecturers and historians.

On the eve of the talks, we spoke to Assistant Director Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon (who will be speaking about ‘The Apartment’ on May 3) about the architecture, significance and reality of housing in Australia.What makes houses in Australia distinctly ‘Australian’? Our homes come in so many different forms it’s hard to make a clear definition. If I were to nominate one aspect, it would be the relationship to place, culture and time rather than borrowed traditions that fail to fit our climate and distinct geography.

What, in your opinion, creates a successful home? A home is about family and privacy, a retreat from the world. It’s a frame to live your life as you choose. It should be a safe place, a happy place. It need not be about great architecture, but a successful home is a lived-in home, one that represents the interests of the person/s living there.

So it doesn’t need to be the biggest house on the block? No, a successful home is not a large home but a physical space where every centimetre is used. We only need to look back to mid-century housing to realise that with flexibility, open-plan floor plans and connectivity you can make a home work.

Do Australians take ‘space’ for granted? Given our houses are 7% larger than American houses, twice the size of European houses and three times as large as British houses, we do need to take stock and revisit the way we choose to live. This is given an added potency as the house is perhaps our greatest symbol of social and economic status. Our identity is wrapped up in where we live and how we live.

Does the climate affect Australian design? Yes, it does or at least it should. And there is no better place to start than traditional bush architecture to learn more about how construction techniques can be adapted to provide effective homes for our climate. The real challenge is not at the high-end of architectural bespoke houses, it’s how we make our ordinary homes distinctly Australian by building sustainable houses and adapting where possible to make the most of passive environmental techniques. We need to make sure we don’t over-consume at the expense of future generations.

In conjunction with her talk, Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon is also conducting a walking tour of the walk-up, high-rise and big-name apartments of Kings Cross. An area that she describes as “a laboratory of apartment design throughout the past 100 years”. For more information on this series, see the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales website.

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